Janine Allis
brought a fruit juice and smoothie revolution to Australia nearly 13 years ago and in that short time she has grown Boost Juice into one of the country’s most recognised and successful franchises.

Today, the lime green stands she co-founded add a vibrant presence to most shopping centres and airports nationally, and increasingly internationally, with 240 outlets across 14 countries.

Allis says when she is confronted by something new, she is driven by an entrepreneurial instinct which leads her to question how it will affect her business. She takes a similar approach to technology.

When she becomes aware of new tools or devices, she says, she takes the time to “logically work through it", to understand its purpose and question how it could add efficiency to her schedule.

Efficiency is a big thing for the entrepreneur and mother of four.

“In the early days of email, everyone had it for business but they weren’t using it as a tool for marketing," she says.

“We were one of the first ones in Adelaide to really create a database and use that technology to communicate with our customers," she tells The Australian Financial Review.

“We had an IT person hired in the very early days because we knew that to succeed as a business we really needed to be across it."

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Allis says Boost Juice’s philosophy “is about having fun" and engaging with customers.

A common in-store practice is to interact with customers by name, aiming to create a personal touch for each order.

She says the business has tried to recreate that in its digital services.

“It’s about being respectful. I’ve always approached business as though I’m the customer.

“With email we decided not to sell anything, but instead to give customers good health information," she says.

“Then we can try and create a game or try to engage with them and have a two-way conversation.

“Then if people want to opt out we make it really easy for them, because nothing drives me more mad than if I’m trying to opt out of something and I keep getting it."

Being an early adopter of technology had its pitfalls. Allis says she quickly became disillusioned with IT companies following rampant over-promising.

“One of the frustrating things I found back then was you sit in front of these people selling you products that they promise will make the world much better, and I would say, nine times out of 10 they wouldn’t deliver on their promise," Allis says.

“The IT world was the classic joke of over-promise and under-deliver."

However, fast forward 13 years and she now believes technology tools are mature enough to start delivering the benefits she wanted all along.

Allis is investigating how best to use a mobile app, but is guarding against launching one too soon, just for the sake of it.

One option is to find a way to put Boost Juice’s widely used loyalty cards onto a smartphone.

She says she is keen to avoid the perils of being the first to launch an app because inevitably bugs occur that annoy customers.

“With the app, we’re really sitting back and researching how people are using them, what is popular, what isn’t popular, how can we make it really efficient," she says. “Now the technology has caught up to our ideas and we will start to utilise it."

In terms of her own use, Allis won one of the first iPhones as a prize, when she was awarded Telstra Businesswoman of the Year. She remains an iPhone user today, but says she has no particular loyalty to Apple products.

“I was never one of those that would stay out until 2 am in the morning for an Apple product," she says.

“For me, what is important is which device is the most efficient or reliable. For example, I have the iPhone 5 at the moment and the battery is a problem – so I say OK, well I like it, it has a better camera, thanks for that, but really it’s no go to me."

Her approach to devices is the same as her approach to work.

She says if something is worth doing, she will invest the time to do it properly.

“If I can find something that makes my life more efficient and easy, and things don’t fall to crap, then I embrace it and I’ll sit down and learn how to use it," Allis says.

“In actual fact if anything goes wrong in the household then I’m the one that fixes it.